World Wide Web Inventor Taking On Big Tech & Government: Looking to 'Upend' the Web

Nick Kangadis | October 1, 2018
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I’m not a “no government” guy, but I am for very limited government. That being said, you can sign me up for any new invention or program that could take power away from the government, as long as it works within the law.

The website Fast Company, who bills themselves as “the world’s leading progressive business media brand,” recently did a story on the man credited with inventing the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. While Berners-Lee has been a proponent for Net Neutrality, implemented by the government, the article focused on a new project Berners-Lee is working on that would take on governments and corporate tech giants, like Facebook and Google.

According to Fast Company:

This week, Berners-Lee will launch Inrupt, a startup that he has been building, in stealth mode, for the past nine months. Backed by Glasswing Ventures, its mission is to turbocharge a broader movement afoot, among developers around the world, to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it. In other words, it’s game on for Facebook, Google, Amazon. For years now, Berners-Lee and other internet activists have been dreaming of a digital utopia where individuals control their own data and the internet remains free and open. But for Berners-Lee, the time for dreaming is over […]

Ever since revelations emerged that Facebook had allowed people’s data to be misused by political operatives, Berners-Lee has felt an imperative to get this digital idyll into the real world.

Since the invention of the internet hit the masses, big corporations and world governments — including the U.S. — have used the platform for its own purposes in gathering as much data on individuals as they possibly can.

“The intent is world domination,” Berners-Lee said.

Berners-Lee is trying to strip down the internet so that individuals can have increased control over their own personal data.

Berners-Lee has been working tirelessly over the last nine months developing a program to combat the thumb that giant tech corporations and governements currently hold over the internet. His new program is called Solid. It’s said to be “like a mashup of Google Drive, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Spotify, and WhatsApp.”

Fast Company also reported:

The difference here is that, on Solid, all the information is under his control. Every bit of data he creates or adds on Solid exists within a Solid pod–which is an acronym for personal online data store. These pods are what give Solid users control over their applications and information on the web. Anyone using the platform will get a Solid identity and Solid pod. This is how people, Berners-Lee says, will take back the power of the web from corporations.

As it’s presented in the article, and judging by Berners-Lee’s own words, I don’t see how anyone who appreciates privacy and freedom wouldn’t be on board with something like this.

Berners-Lee, who never really profited from his invention of the World Wide Web, isn’t looking to make a buck with his new program. He simply wants to give control of people’s data back to the people.

“We are not talking to Facebook and Google about whether or not to introduce a complete change where all their business models are completely upended overnight,” Berners-Lee said. “We are not asking their permission.”

As long as Berners-Lee isn’t violation any laws, such as patent laws, it shouldn’t really matter what Facebook and Google think.

H/T: The Blaze

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